You’ve heard it time and time again, that taking care of your gut health is important. Good gut health is associated with overall improved health, clear and glowing skin, as well as improved mental health to name a few. While probiotics are great for maintaining balance within the gastrointestinal tract (GI tract), what about taking care of the whole digestive system – which begins all the way in the mouth and continues into the large intestine. Meet Digezyme, our secret to a well-functioning digestive system.
It’s no secret that to maintain good health, it’s important to eat a well-balanced diet, get plenty of exercise and drink plenty of h2O throughout the day. However sometimes, despite doing all the right stuff, you can still feel sluggish and suffer from uncomfortable digestive symptoms such as bloating.
Taking the time to nourish and care for your digestive tract has so many important benefits. Our very own Digezyme Digestive Enzymes have been designed to fit as easily into your everyday life as your morning coffee. Our capsules work to optimise the nutrient availability of the food we eat, as well as assist with digestion and breakdown of this food. This results in easing of uncomfortable digestive symptoms such as bloating and gas. Additionally, if you are looking to increase your absorption of nutrients such as iron or vitamin B, Digezyme helps to ensure your body absorbs all available nutrients from your food.
Digezyme has a wealth of benefits which include:
To formulate Digezyme, we’ve done the research to formulate a specialty product that does the job. Our star ingredients are Amylase, a digestive enzyme that helps to breakdown carbohydrates. This helps to ensure that maximum nutrient absorption is reached. Protease, which is essential for the breakdown of both animal and plant proteins. Lipase and Lactose are important for the breakdown of fats and lactose. All these ingredients work to ensure that the digestive process is as comfortable as possible, as well as eliminating uncomfortable digestive complaints.
Having a health and well-functioning digestive system, is so important for good health, as well as making sure that you can gain the most out of each day. To learn more about the benefits of Digezyme, you can click here.
Pre-workout is one of the most widely discussed and used supplements - mention pre-workout to a friend or your gym buddy, it’s guaranteed to be a conversation starter – Do you take it? When? How often? What do you feel?
No matter your athletic ability or level – beginners and pro athletes alike can benefit from using a pre-workout. Knowing which pre-workout to use, and more importantly how to take it can turn what would have just been a good workout into a great workout.
What is a Pre-Workout?
Traditional definitions of pre-workout describe it as a dietary supplement designed to help bodybuilders and athletes reach their peak potential. This is through increasing energy levels, focus as well as endurance to go that extra 10%.
The Kamikaze by Athletic Sport pre-workout range has been formulated to enhance your training performance as well as provide a boost to your energy levels, power your brain and provide adrenal recovery. Considering the whole picture of your health. Looking after both your mind and body is so important in reaching your health and fitness goals.
How does Kamikaze work?
Pre-workout helps to set the stage for a good workout by getting both your mind and body in the zone. Unlike other pre-workouts Kamikaze has been designed for the everyday athlete, with a huge focus on overall health in mind. This is through boosting physical performance as well as enhancing digestive health. Good gut health is one of the elements to reaching health and fitness goals.
What is in Kamikaze?
Kamikaze is compiled with a powerhouse of nutrients including caffeine, betaine anhydrous and English walnut fruit extract. We’ve taken care of everything, making our pre-workout an all-round superstar.
To enhance your training performance, we’ve added amino acids L Citruline and Beta Alanine. We haven’t forgotten about your muscles, so we’ve added Beta Anhydrous to help increase your muscular performance and Epicatechin to enhance muscle growth. To give you a mental boost Kamikaze is enriched with Alpha-GPC, to keep you sharp and focused.
To help you feel energised before, during and after your workout Kamikaze contains caffeine and English walnut fruit extract. Both natural stimulants help you to feel energetic as well as increase your feel good and mood boosting hormones (dopamine).
Guess what, the benefits don’t end here - Astragin, KSM66 and Shilajit Extract help re-balance hormones, acting as a natural antidote to life’s stressors. You can count on these ingredients to help you combat that post workout muscle soreness and help you power through your day.
How Kamikaze is different to other pre-workouts on the market?
Knowing what ingredients are in your pre-workout can make all the difference in achieving the results you want. We at Athletic Sport use ingredients that have been tried and tested as well as having scientific research to back them up. We are proud to say we list every single ingredient within our Kamikaze, and entire Athletic Sport range. We’ve done the hard yards and come up with a product that will do wonders for your mind and body.
When to take Kamikaze?
No matter your goal, be sure to include kamikaze into your workout regime. Here’s our tips:
Aim to take Kamikaze around 30 minutes before a workout. You can also enjoy Kamikaze as a substitute for your daily grind on your commute to the office.
Our top tip is it is always important to stick to the recommended dosage. If you know that you are sensitive to the effects of caffeine – i.e., a coffee after lunch will keep you buzzing till midnight, start with half the serving size.
Kamikaze will give you the energy of a ninja warrior – seriously. It’s more than just something that will give you the ‘tingles’ before the gym. Kamikaze helps take your mind and body to the next level, helping you to boss out your day. Did we mention the range of amazing flavours we have? You can check them out here!
Exercise and good nutrition go hand in hand to achieve good health, but what about sleep? Most of us know the importance of regular physical activity and getting your 2 fruit and 5 veg per day, however sleep is also just as important for good health. If you find yourself tossing and turning night after night and feel like you’ve tried every trick in the book, we’ve researched the best ways to get more quality ZZ’s.
With good nutrition and exercise, sleep is now recognised as one of the pillars of good health. A lack of sleep has been shown to have a major impact on mood, memory, and quality of life.
We spend a massive 1/3 of our whole lives asleep. A good night’s sleep is key for optimal health, keeping you focused and sharp throughout the day and making sure you kick your goals, no matter what they are.
We at Athletic Sport are busy bee’s just like you and know that to get a good night’s sleep, we need to create a schedule, just like you would for your diet or your exercise regime. Grab a pillow and curl up - here are our 6 ways to a better night’s sleep!
1: Have a regular sleep pattern
Aim to go to bed and wake up around the same time each day. This helps your body’s natural body clock aka circadian rhythm work efficiently. While you won’t hear it tick, your body’s clock is a major part of regulating your sleep wake/cycle. Helping you to feel sleepy at bedtime and energised as soon as you open your eyes.
2: Bed is for snoozing not entertainment
While we all love a good Netflix binge with some delicious snacks, try to avoid the bedroom unless you are sleepy. If you use your room for more than just sleeping, having dedicated sections can help you create the distinction between sleep, relaxing and work. Avoid having a tv in your room if you can and always do work at a desk rather than sitting in bed. These tricks of the trade help your body to sub-consciously make the link between bed and sleep, helping you to get a more quality rest. If you find you can’t lie down and sleep straight away, invest in a good read and do this to wind down before bed.
3: Don’t watch the clock
If you find yourself lying awake and looking at the clock, you can find yourself feeling anxious about how much sleep that you are getting. If possible, remove all electronic devices from the bedroom, or if that is not possible, make sure that alarm clocks are not visible near your bed.
4: Make your room comfortable
Making sure your bedroom is dark and as quiet as possible helps to regulate the production of melatonin, a hormone which is responsible for telling your body when to sleep and wake up. Ensuring that your mattress and pillow provide support for body and keeping the room temperature around 24 degrees, helps to ensure you get a quality and restful sleep.
5: Add more nuts to your diet.
Nuts like walnuts, cashews, almonds, and pistachios are loaded with magnesium and melatonin to help you relax and get a better night’s sleep.
6: Add Adrenal Cort to your diet.
We are faced with more stress and pressure then ever before. Juggling work, family commitments and taking time out for self-care can be quite the difficult act. Adrenal Cort is our solution to making sure you have the energy and stamina to get through your day. We’ve harnessed the benefits of the adaptogen Ashwagandha. This helps to balance cortisol aka stress hormone levels in the body, ultimately helping you to relax in the evenings. We’ve also added Magnolia to help you unwind and relax. To find out more about Adrenal Cort you can read our blog post here.
Getting a good night’s sleep can be an impossible goal, especially when your wide awake at 3am. But taking steps to ensure you create a healthy sleep habit as well as supplementing your diet with Adrenal Cort are simple and easy ways to help you get a better night’s sleep.
We’ve all faced an adrenaline inducing situation at least once in our lives – whether that be tackling a fear of heights, speaking in front of a large audience or even something simple like visiting the dentist. Despite our best efforts to avoid these situations, it is inevitable that sooner or later we will find ourselves facing an old or new fear. These events can bring about many emotions and feelings, most notably a sensation to run for the hills, and a sudden bolt of energy to quite literally ‘bolt for it’.
However, what if your causes of stress were simply being stuck in gridlock traffic on your morning commute or preparing a lovely dinner for your partners very opinionated parents. It may even be recovering from a very intense leg day at the gym.
At Athletic Sport, we are a team who each have our own unique stressors and fears. This means that we know and understand that not every day will be filled with large scale stressors such as bungee jumping in New Zealand. Instead, it can be a whole lot of mini stressors ranging from work, family, and lifestyle factors. These mini stressors can add up and ultimately have just as much of an impact on your body and mind.
Let’s dive a little deeper into what causes the sensation known as ‘fight or flight’. Say hello to your adrenal glands, although they may be small oh boy are they mighty. Found just above the kidneys, the adrenal glands are made up of two primary parts, the cortex and medulla. These glands work hard to produce hormones to regulate metabolism, maintain healthy blood pressure and even ensure that your immune system is on top of its game. Any increase in any of these factors, such as the ones felt in response to strong emotions cause adrenaline aka epinephrine to be released into the bloodstream. Which causes an almost instantaneous increase in strength, sugar metabolism as well as your heartrate. The bigger the stress, the more you’ll feel the sensation of butterflies in your tummy and a sudden rush of energy. These fluctuations in hormones from stressors can leave you feeling lethargic, run down, and finding it difficult to keep up with the demands of your day-to-day life.
At Athletic Sport, we pride ourselves on creating products to give you the extra hand to get through all your day, not just gym. This is where our Adrenal Cort comes into play. Adrenal Cort works as an anti-inflammatory, enabling your body to recover and repair faster from exercise as well as working long hours. It also has all the benefits of a warm hug from your mum, helping you to switch off and relax at the end of each day. We have designed it as a capsule to fit in easily into your everyday life, making it portable so you can take it with you on the go, or leave it in the office, your gym bag or in the kitchen at home.
Adaptogens are our superstar ingredient! These are nothing new, in fact they originated centuries ago in Ayurvedic and Chinese healing traditions. Adaptogens as the name suggests, help your body to adapt. These truly shine on a molecular level helping to balance out and regulate the stress, ultimately restoring balance and harmony within our hypothalamic, pituitary, and adrenal glands. This means that your body can handle any new stresses thrown its way for a longer period, whether it be in the gym, family commitments or part of your 9-5.
We’ve harnessed the benefits of adaptogens and added them to our Adrenal Cort including Holy basil to enhance athletic performance and the ‘King of Herbs ‘in Ayurvedic medicine Ashwagandha. Ashwagandha helps to balance cortisol in the body, which regulates the sleep and wake cycle. This ensures that you wake up each morning refreshed. We’ve also added Magnolia to help you unwind and relax, Turmeric to reduce and prevent inflammation, as well as improving your heart health. And L-theanine to help improve your focus and help you reach your potential in all aspects of your life.
In our modern day lives, we are busier than ever before, and ultimately more stressed than we have ever been. Adding Adrenal Cort is a helping hand to manage all the stressors that come with living an active lifestyle. You can take care of your body from the inside out, helping you to balance work and family commitments and ensure that you are able to wind down at the end of each day with a feeling of satisfaction.
Adrenal cort is your secret weapon to being able to go that extra mile. So, if you would like to enhance your lifestyle, gain more out of each day, be able to keep up with your busy schedule be sure to get your hands on our tried and tested Adrenal Cort. We promise you won’t look back!
Picture this - You’ve done all the hard work in the gym, you’ve pushed your body to a new pb, followed a proper warm up and cool down regime, but your muscles still feel extra fatigued post workout!
If you’ve ever experienced this, you are not alone. You may not be re-fuelling properly after your workout.
Pre-workout nutrition is designed to get your body in the zone by topping up energy stores and ensuring that your muscles are ready to power you through your session. Similarly, post workout nutrition, helps muscles to recover and grow. This leads to shorter recovery and down times. If your aim is to build and/or maintain muscle mass, your post-workout nutrition is a key part of the jigsaw puzzle that will get you to your results. Rehydrating and refuelling after every workout will help you reach your goals in no time.
During exercise, the body’s natural energy stores – glycogen which you topped up with your pre-workout meal (insert link to pre-workout meal blog) is depleted. So, it is important to refuel and replace the energy that you have used up and assist with muscle recovery. If you don’t eat, you can end up fatigued and battling low blood sugar. Additionally, you are also slowing down your body’s repair process.
Protein is a key macronutrient that is a must for speedy muscle recovery, especially after weight training. Our Athletic Sport Lean Whey Protein is the perfect companion to your post workout regime. Here at Athletic sport, we want to nourish the athlete within all of us, and this is why our specially formulated whey protein powder contains the highest protein content on the market, which means that you can easily reach your individual protein needs.
Eating your post workout meal within 30 minutes of finishing exercise– is ideal to get your energy back up. This is because you've blown through your glycogen stores and torn up your muscles. Your post-workout meal should be high in complex carbohydrates and loaded with healthy protein.
Don’t forget rehydrating is also very important, but it doesn’t have to be boring. Our Athletic Sport Aminos EAA & BCAA are a tasty way to stay hydrated throughout the day. You can enjoy this whether it’s a gym or rest day.
Refuelling after a workout helps your body maximise the benefits gained from exercise, which means that you can get stronger and faster in no time! You can view our top post workout supplements here.
Creatine is easily one of the most popular sports supplements, hailed for its ability to increase your energy levels during a workout. Post-workout, creatine helps your tired and achy muscles repair. Our own Creatine Micronized Monohydrate is formulated to help improve your bodies muscles mass, providing both short and long-term muscle fibre growth. Among other things, creatine helps to prevent muscle breakdown and improve talking between cells so that muscle repair and growth is more effective.
How does a creatine supplement work?
In a very simple explanation, creatine is formed from three amino acids: glycine, L-arginine, and L-methionine. Up to 95% of the available creatine in the body is stored in the skeletal muscle, with the remaining 5% found in the brain, kidney, and liver. Creatine works to maintain a continuous supply of energy to muscles.
ATP (Adrenaline Triphosphate) is a chemical source of energy in the body, which once utilised becomes ADP (Adenosine Diphosphate). Because ADP is not very useful to the body, creatine works by transforming the ADP to ATP for more available energy. With this renewed energy, you can train for longer periods of time and recover more efficiently. Our creatine micronized monohydrate works to prevent muscle breakdown and improve short and long-term muscle fibre growth.
Why supplement?
Many factors influence naturally occurring creatine stores such as hormone fluctuations, dietary influences, as well as physiological factors such as the available amount of muscle mass. Taking all these factors into account can leave you depleted of naturally occurring creatine. This is where Athletic Sport Creatine Micronized Monohydrate comes in, as it helps to fill any voids that may interfere with creatine stores.
How to incorporate creatine into my diet?
Our exclusively formulated creatine micronized monohydrate is 100% pure and is the most extensively researched creatine on the market. It is absorbed efficiently by the gut and won’t cause any digestive complaints! We are proud that we have no fillers or by-products, just pure creatine to bring out the athlete in you. Our favourite way to enjoy creatine is mixed with our Kamikaze pre-workout, or if you are after a post-workout style refreshment, mixing our Aminos BCAA, creatine and water is a refreshingly delicious drink.
The Intermittent Fasting (IF) method is a popular diet that switches between cycles of eating and fasting. What makes IF diets so appealing is they are an easy to keep up lifestyle choice. Positively impacting both the mind and body. IF diets allow for an opportunity to break-away from unhealthy eating patterns and foods and allow a re-set to ensure that you are nourishing your body with nutritious and wholesome foods.
Not only a sustainable approach to weight loss, IF can also help to reduce inflammation and damage to your body’s cells caused by free radicals. IF can also increase sensitivity to hormones such as leptin and insulin. Helping to reduce hunger cravings and allowing blood glucose levels to remain stable.
IF diets can positively impact heart health, by helping to naturally lower blood pressure. Additionally, it can also reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes, as well as help to create healthy eating habits and reduce binge eating behaviours.
It is important to note that women are more susceptible to large fluctuations in hormone levels, when compared to men. These fluctuations can interfere with a woman’s menstrual cycle. Because of this, women should follow shorter fasting periods such as the 12 hour fast per day or 16:8 method.
Here are 5 of the most popular methods for intermittent fasting:
12 Hour Fast Per Day
This method allows for a 12-hour eating window. For example, this means you could eat between 7am-7pm, and fast from 7pm-7am.
The 5:2 Diet
This diet works by following a normal diet for 5 days of the week and then restricting your calories to 500 for women and 600 for men for the 2 remaining days.
Alternate Day Fasting
This diet suggests you fast every other day of the week. Fasting days or ‘light days’ have a maximum of 500 calories.
The Warrior Diet
This diet allows you to eat a small number of raw fruits and vegetables during the day and one large meal at night during a 4-hour eating timeframe.
The 16:8 Method
This diet recommends fasting for 16 hours of the day and having an eating time frame of 8 hours.
It’s important to take care of your digestive health, no matter which style of diet you choose to follow. Enjoying our own “Gut Greens” is the best way to break your fast. It has been created to assist with digestion, to ensure you get the most nutrients out of your meals. As well as support your immune system and overall health. To enjoy it, simply mix with water or add to your favourite smoothie with some fruits and veggies for a filling and nourishing post fast meal.
The new year is here, and for most of us it’s a new opportunity to create healthy habits.
Ensuring you meet your nutritional needs is essential for maintaining good overall health.
Adaptogens have gained a momentum of praise in recent times. Read on to find out how they can help you to stay on track for your new year resolutions in 2022.
Adaptogens work in the body by increasing our ability to resist stressors whether they be physical or mental, such as the physical stress a workout can put the body through, or the mental stress of completing tasks before deadlines at work.
Just like different exercises help to tone and strengthen different parts of the body, there are adaptogens to help you sleep better, boost your immune system as well as further your athletic performance.
For athletic performance:
For better sleep:
For a boost to the immune system:
Our very own Athletic Sport products have been formulated to fit into your everyday lifestyle. Our Adrenal Cort helps the body adapt to the physical and mental stresses of modern-day life, helping you perform to your peak both in the gym and the office. Our newest addition Gut Greens are enriched with adaptogens which help to maximise inner health and gut function.
5 Minutes in the Locker Room with Ironman, Matt Poole.
Creatine is the hero of all supplements. When we talk about performance enhancing supplements, we don’t just mean performance in the gym. Performance is in the gym and also outside of the gym. How do we perform at school? How do we perform at work? How do we perform at home with the kids?
Creatine is an amino acid that is found in muscle tissue, the most common food sources are red meat and seafood. The creatine that is found in the muscle tissue binds with a high energy phosphate group to form ‘phosphocreatine’.
When undertaking exercises that require a large amount of energy quickly, such as a heavy lift or a sprint, the phosphate part of the molecule is snipped off and used to create ATP. ATP is the energy used to do the work. Therefore, the more creatine, the more phosphocreatine, the more phosphocreatine, the more phosphate is available to energy production. Long story short, increased energy availability. With this, it enables greater high-intensity performance and greater training stimulus for enhanced training adaption.
Who is creatine useful for?
Everyone!!!
The increase in energy is not the only thing creatine is useful for.
Strong science has shown that creatine is useful for:
Is supplementation actually useful? Most definitely!! Get your hands on Athletics Sports Creatine to watch your performance go from good to great. Vegan or vegetarian? Creatine is highly recommended for you guys too because creatine is not found in plant foods, therefore, generally you have lower intramuscular stores of creatine.
How do we supplement with creatine?
Creatine supplementation usually comprises of 2 phases; a loading phase and a maintenance phase. Loading phase take between 5-7 days and then maintenance phase is there onwards for the duration of supplementation.
Loading phase is taking 20-25g per day but over 4-5 doses each day. Maintenance phase means you’ve loaded the muscles, better yet, saturated the muscles with enough creatine and now it’s a matter of maintaining those levels. Therefore, the dosage of creatine in the maintenance phase is 5g per day but can be taken in one dose rather than multiple.
Do you have to do the different phases?
Absolutely not. You can go straight to maintenance phase however, just be mindful that you will retain water (this will eventually go down) and you may experience some gastrointestinal discomfort from the large doses. Either regime for supplementation works fine. It is totally dependent on the individual.
Can creatine supplementation have a positive effect on the brain too?
It definitely does! Having a larger phosphate reservoir in the brain has potential benefits too. It’s not all related to exercise. One study has shown that creatine supplementation improved the effects of anti-depression meds. It can also reduce the symptoms from traumatic brain injuries, this can relate to contact team sports when concussions are present and frequent. Other studies have shown improvements in cognition when creatine is taken by people with low dietary intake.
Creatine overall, as mentioned at the start, is a hero product and every single one of us can benefit from supplementing with creatine. At a low cost, it is an extremely effective supplement. Get your hands on Athletic Sport Creatine today and watch the benefits yourself!!
